The GBP/USD currency pair rallied higher in the early European session to hit a daily high of 1.3466, but later declined after the BoE rate decision to an intraday low of 1.3410.

The British pound rallied higher after the release of UK retail sales data excluding auto fuel by the Office for National Statistics in the early European session. The retail sales report excluding auto fuel came in at a monthly rate of 1.2%, which was higher than the expected and previous 0.4%. The retail sales figure came in at 1.5% on an annualized basis, as compared to the expected 0.2%. The pound initially shrugged off the latest Brexit developments where British MPs voted against Theresa May‘s Brexit plan.